What this market needs is Louis Rukeyser

Joseph Lazzaro — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:02:00 EST

Of all the market changes and losses that Wall Street has witnessed during the United States' decade of errors and descent, perhaps no loss has been as costly for investors, or as lamented, than the passing of Louis Rukeyser.

For those younger investors/readers who may not have heard of him, Rukeyser, who passed away two years ago, was the host of the Public Broadcasting System's "Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser."

At its core, the show, which ran with Rukeyser as host from 1970 to 2005 and was broadcast on Friday nights after the market closed, was the first weekly television series to summarize the week's often-dizzying financial and economic news in plain-spoken terms that the typical investor could understand. Simply, Louis Rukeyser defined broadcast financial news coverage and analysis, and was the face of Wall Street for a generation.

And the key to the show's success and usefulness, along with a no-nonsense format, was Rukeyser. A journalist by training, Rukeyser combined expert-level knowledge of the stock market and economics with the temperament and values of a family doctor, to create a calming, trustworthy source that viewers tuned in to religiously. The show became one of the most popular programs on PBS, at one point airing on more than 300 stations and attracting over 4.1 million viewing households.

Continue reading What this market needs is Louis Rukeyser

What this market needs is Louis Rukeyser originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Think the market is cheap? Consider this

Peter Cohan — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Bad News, Economic Data

The New York Times [registration required] reports that if you use the long-term P/E -- based on the earnings over the last decade -- as Warren Buffett's mentors Graham and Dodd recommended, stocks are very expensive.

While Wall Street analysts want to convince you that the S&P 500 is cheap -- trading at a P/E of 16.5 -- Robert Schiller, a Yale economist, doesn't buy it. He calculates that the long-term P/E -- based on the average of the last 10 years' earnings -- is almost 27.

This is not good. In fact, it suggests that stocks are trading higher than they have been at any other point in the last 130 years, save the great bubbles of the 1920s and the 1990s. The stock run-up of the 1990s was so big, in other words, that the market may still not have fully worked it off.

All the debt added to the economy may have delayed the adjustment in stock prices. But it could make that adjustment even more severe.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.

Think the market is cheap? Consider this originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 15 Aug 2007 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments